Rock sugar is the crystallized product of granulated sugar. Natural rock sugar comes in white, yellowish, light gray and other colors. In addition, there are various colored rock sugars with food coloring added on the market (mainly for export), such as green, blue, orange, reddish, dark red, etc. color. Because its crystals are like ice, it is named rock sugar. Also called "ice food".

Preparation technology

Original production

Preparation of sugar solution: Choose 50kg of white sugar, add 10kg of clean water and mix well to fully dissolve the sugar in the water.

Stewing method: Before boiling, add vegetable oil to the sandwich in the jacketed pot, then pour the prepared sugar liquid into the upper pot and boil over fire. When the sugar solution boils for 5 to 6 minutes, add 0.5 kg of saturated alum solution at room temperature and stir while adding to fully mix. Use a thermometer to measure. When the temperature in the sugar solution rises to 150°C, stop the fire and cool down and remove from the pot. When taking out the pot, the best temperature is 115~120℃.

Crystallization method: Put the sugar liquid out of the pot into a plate, place it on the pit and cover it tightly with a clean quilt. Keep the temperature in the plate at about 90°C that day, and then lower the temperature by 10°C every day. Until the seventh day. If the temperature is not enough, you can add fire to raise the temperature of the pit. Under normal circumstances, the sugar liquid is not afraid of cold but not heat during the crystallization process.

Alum is potassium aluminum sulfate. Metal aluminum ions will be permanently deposited in the brain, causing dementia. The addition of alum in food preparation has been banned. Alum, potassium aluminum sulfate, acts as a crystallization nucleus, allowing sugar molecules to form crystals around itself. In many industrial processes, alum is added to accelerate crystallization and solidification. Therefore, the local method of adding alum to make rock sugar should not be consumed in excess. There are many harmless substances selected as crystal nuclei.

Production of health-care rock sugar

A new type of rock sugar with health-care functions has emerged in the Chinese domestic market. That is, in the production process of polycrystalline rock sugar, some auxiliary materials (such as pear juice, chrysanthemum juice, etc.) are added to increase the health effects of rock sugar.

The production process of health-care rock sugar is slightly different from the production method of ordinary polycrystalline rock sugar (old rock sugar), which is mainly reflected in the use of juice or boiled water of auxiliary materials instead of traditional water during the production process. For example, pear juice is squeezed out to replace ordinary water, and it is boiled with white sugar again and crystallized to produce pear juice rock sugar; high-concentration chrysanthemum boiled water is used to replace ordinary water, and it is boiled with white sugar again and crystallized to produce it. Become chrysanthemum rock candy. However, during the production process, due to the fact that it contains a certain amount of pear juice or chrysanthemum juice, the crystallization process is often slow or unable to crystallize during the crystallization process. Therefore, it is necessary to add safe edible auxiliary agents to serve as crystallization nuclei. .

3 Processing method

Single crystal rock sugar

Put the white sugar into an appropriate amount of water, heat and dissolve it, filter it and put it into the crystallization tank to make the sugar liquid supersaturated. The crystal seeds are put in to grow the crystals. After the crystal grains are grown, they are taken out for honey removal and centrifugal drying. They are ventilated, dried, sieved, sorted and packaged before leaving the factory.

Polycrystalline rock sugar

Put the white sugar into an appropriate amount of water, heat and dissolve, and boil the sugar. After reaching a certain concentration, put it into the crystallization basin. After cultivating the crystals in the crystallization chamber for a week, take out the mother liquor. After being completely controlled, the sand bottom is removed, crushed and dried, then mixed and packaged before leaving the factory.

4 Storage Method Edit

1. Rock sugar should be placed in a cool and ventilated place because it is easier to absorb water and get damp.

2. If the rock sugar is found to be damp and watery, you can use an electric fan to dry it or expose it to the sun until it is dry.

3. If you find that water has melted on the surface of the rock sugar (that is, it is relatively sticky), it is not easy to handle at home and can easily breed bacteria, so it is best not to eat it.

5 Sugar classifications

According to the production license issuance requirements: white sugar, soft white sugar, brown sugar, polycrystalline rock sugar, single crystal rock sugar, cube sugar, born sugar, yellow sugar (Guangdong ), processed brown sugar (Zhejiang).

According to production and daily eating habits: raw sugar, white sugar, soft white sugar, brown sugar, yellow sugar, brown sugar powder, brown sugar (including brick sugar, bowl sugar, ingot sugar, etc.), artificial brown sugar, Polycrystalline rock sugar, single crystal rock sugar, born sugar, cube sugar, health brown sugar, health rock sugar, powdered sugar, etc.

Raw sugar

Use sugar cane and beet juice to extract sugar. After simple filtration and clarification, it is concentrated by boiling and separated in the center to form sugar crystals. Light brown in color. Sometimes with a hint of molasses or water. It is the most important sugar product in international trade. Raw sugar is only used as a raw material for sugar refinement processing and cannot be directly added to food or eaten directly.

White sugar

Used sugar cane and beet as raw materials (one-step method) or raw sugar as raw material (two-step method), through juice extraction, filtration, impurity removal, and clarification (above) Steps (no need for raw sugar), vacuum concentration and crystallization, honey removal, sugar washing, and drying are obtained. White sugar is the most important type of edible sugar. In foreign countries, almost 100% of edible sugar is white sugar. In China, white sugar accounts for more than 90% of the total edible sugar. White sugar is divided into refined, premium, first-grade and second-grade.

Soft white sugar

Soft white sugar is made from white sugar and raw sugar (also produced directly from sugar beets in Xinjiang and other places), which is dissolved and then recrystallized. Soft white sugar is a kind of edible sugar that domestic consumers prefer. Its texture is soft and delicate, with fine crystal particles. About 2.5% invert syrup is sprayed into it during the production process, so it tastes sweeter than granulated sugar. There are three levels of soft white sugar: refined, premium and first grade.

Brown sugar

A by-product of the one-step production of white sugar using sugar cane as raw material. It is also the main brown sugar product on the market. The main ingredient is sucrose, and it also contains a certain amount of glucose, fructose, molasses, trace elements, vitamins and other nutrients.

Yellow sugar

Also called golden sugar, it is mainly produced and sold in Guangdong, Hong Kong and other places. It is honey-free sugar that contains certain nutrients. The color is light yellow. Its production process is similar to that of white sugar, but the nutrients inside are not completely filtered during the production process, so it retains part of the sugarcane flavor and nutrition, and retains many natural minerals.

Brown sugar powder

Brown sugar powder, also called powdered sugar, refers to powdered brown sugar produced directly from sugar cane juice without the process of extracting white sugar. It is generally produced through local methods. Sugar cane juice is concentrated, dried and crushed. Because it contains a lot of water, it should not be left for too long, as it will easily turn into water and deteriorate during high temperature seasons.

Lump sugar

Lump sugar is traditional brown sugar. According to the different molds used in production, it is generally divided into slice sugar, brick sugar (cube), bowl sugar, ingot sugar, and basket sugar. Sugar etc. Its production process consists of sugarcane juice extraction, concentration, cooling and crystallization.

Processed brown sugar

Also known as artificial brown sugar, it refers to the waste honey produced during the production of rock sugar as raw material, which has been concentrated, cooled, and crushed (continuous stirring during the cooling process ) formed. It contains more reducing sugar, but does not have the flavor and nutrition of brown sugar. It is a sugar with low nutritional value.

Polycrystalline rock sugar

It is also called old rock sugar, soil rock sugar, lump rock sugar, etc. It is an irregular crystal rock sugar produced using traditional techniques. According to different production processes, rock sugar is divided into hanging thread method (the finished product is divided into icicles and ice edges, and there will be impurities such as cotton thread and paper) and pot crystal method (all the rock sugar is crystallized along the crystallization basin, and the finished product is relatively pure). According to different colors, it is divided into white rock sugar, yellow rock sugar and amber rock sugar (gray). This kind of rock sugar has what Chinese medicine calls the medicinal properties of rock sugar.

Single crystal rock sugar

is in the shape of regular transparent crystals. It is a new type of rock candy produced in the 1960s. Its production process is: divided into grades. It has been said that single crystal rock sugar does not have the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine, but whether single crystal rock sugar has the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine still needs to be confirmed by the medical field. In addition, there is not much difference in the chemical composition between single crystal rock sugar and polycrystalline rock sugar.

Born candy

Born candy is a popular candy in Cantonese-popular areas such as Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao, the Pearl River Delta, western Guangdong and Guangxi in South China. A kind of candy. The remaining crystallization mother liquor (waste honey) when making rock sugar is heated and concentrated, and then acid liquid is added to partially convert it into simple sugars to facilitate subsequent molding. The concentrated sugar liquid is produced through processes such as stirring, netting, marking, cooling, off-grid, slicing, and classification. The color is golden and clear, and the surface is rich in waxy luster. The cross section is evenly divided into three layers: upper, middle and lower. The upper and lower layers are densely organized agglomerates, and the middle layer is "sand" composed of smaller sucrose crystals. Wire".

Sugar cube

Sugar cube, also known as half cube sugar, is a high-grade sugar product made from fine-grained refined sugar and pressed into a semi-cube shape (i.e. half of a cube). , has many years of history abroad. The production of sugar cubes is to use refined sugar with appropriate crystal size and mix it with a small amount of concentrated refined sugar solution (or crystallization water) to become wet sugar with a moisture content of 1.5 to 2.5%, and then use a molding machine to shape it into a semi-square shape, and then dry it. Machine dry to less than 0.5% moisture, cool and then package.

Health-care brown sugar

It is a new trend in the development of brown sugar to add some foods with health-care effects to traditional brown sugar to become brown sugar with health-care properties. This type of product first appeared in Japan. It is more common to add ginseng, Panax notoginseng and other Chinese herbal medicines. Through reasonable compatibility with brown sugar, the health effects of brown sugar are increased, becoming a new generation of health-care brown sugar. At present, common health-care brown sugars in China include ginger juice brown sugar, mother-in-law brown sugar, maternal brown sugar, donkey-hide gelatin brown sugar, rose brown sugar, girls’ brown sugar, jujube and ginger brown sugar, jujube brown sugar, wolfberry brown sugar, longan brown sugar, etc. The production process is mainly divided into two categories: simple mixing type and high temperature boiling type.

Health-care rock sugar

In the production process of traditional polycrystalline rock sugar, some auxiliary ingredients with health-care functions are added to produce new rock sugar with health-care functions. The more common health rock sugars include pear juice rock sugar, chrysanthemum rock sugar, lily rock sugar, green tea rock sugar, etc. The key point of the production process is to replace the water in the rock sugar production process with the juice of auxiliary materials, boiled liquid, etc., and its active ingredients crystallize together with the rock sugar.

Powdered sugar

Powdered sugar is white powdered sugar with very fine particles. According to different raw materials, it is divided into white sugar powder and rock sugar powder. The former is mainly used for cooking Western food, and the latter is mainly used as a sweetener for high-end beverages. According to different production processes, it is divided into two types: spray drying method and direct crushing method. During the storage process of traditional sugar powder, about 3~10% starch mixture (usually corn flour) is added to prevent moisture and prevent the sugar grains from becoming tangled.